Highly Skilled Business Savvy Professionals

Custom Web Solutions delights its customers through attention to their needs and on-going love of the products created together.

As highly skilled business savvy professionals we are valued partners in digital product management. We rapidly deliver high quality technology solutions and continuously improve by inspecting and adapting our processes.

To discuss

• Understand/Define what each of key success measures mean
• Understand the current state
• What is the cause that is stopping us/helping us
• Come up with actions that will help us to define the road map that allows CWS to meet the mission statement

What does it mean?

• Can we define it?
• Can we identify if we have it or not?
• Can we measure it?

Current State: (to provide for meeting)

• What it is that we are doing at the moment that is good already? Examples
• What is it that we are doing that is not so good? Examples?
• What is hindering us from achieving our goal?
• What is helping us to achieve our goal

Considering Tasks:

• Am I highly skilled in this activity?
• Am I business savvy in relation to this activity?
• Am I professional when it comes to performing this activity?
• What is helping me be a HSBSP in this activity
• What is hindering me in being a HSBSP in this activity

HSBSP: Expressing technical and business knowledge.

But this covers different roles for different team members – thus differing skills…? ( Java or UI Developer, Producers, Designers, etc.)

http://startupsofa.com/12-tips-for-how-to-be-a-professional/

1. Be passionate
2. Be eager
3. Be a sponge
4. Get better on nights and weekends
5. Everyone starts somewhere
6. Be the solution No one likes a complainer. Be a change agent instead. Be someone who sees a problem and owns the solution.
7. Be flexible
8. Be helpful
9. Be on time
10. Find out how you fit in, quickly
11. Show up, work hard and you'll stand out
12. You're not a rockstar

http://www.wordconstructions.com/articles/business/professional.html

…honesty, fairness, respect…

A professional aims to give the best they can

• Keeping Springboard afloat as required :)
• Developing the best solutions to stories on the board
• Providing advice (where possible) to enquires (verbal/email from colleagues, etc.)
• Being a technical lead for the solutions we provide, and/or particular web site development
• Contributing to the process(es) involved

To apply earlier task questions (rather generally to the above tasks):

• Am I highly skilled in this activity?
  • As skilled as I can be - given my experience. I am continuing to extend my knowledge of the technology we use, as well as trying to keep up-to-date with 'web' trends and developments.
• Am I business savvy in relation to this activity?
  • I currently have a quite limited interaction with people outside the CWS team - and so often wish I had a better understanding of how CWS work fits within the organisation as a whole, and the relationships/interaction between our wider internal customers and the end (external) customer.
• Am I professional when it comes to performing this activity?
  • Did we actually define what it is to be professional? (I'm thinking of my earlier points - 'being the solution' and 'giving the best I can' [if that doesn't sound too much like a Gillette advert].) I would certainly like to think I am - though how can we determine this?
• What is helping me be a HSBSP in this activity
  • Mostly my previous education and work experience over the last X years. I would expect to continue to develop professionally and keep abreast of my technical developments (through study in and out of work - though hopefully Wiley would provide training if required for newly introduced technology/processes).
• What is hindering me in being a HSBSP in this activity
  • I've mentioned that having a better understanding of the context within which CWS operates would be useful, and knowledge of how the team's project work is handled from start to finish. (Practically, this may make little difference to the way I work - but such contextual information would be useful.) Furthermore, the start of the mission statement refers to an 'attention to the customers needs' - but these needs must be clearly expressed if we are to delight the customer, and that is lacking in the current process. (Do we get feedback from customers [internal and external] about what they think of our products - both during and after the development process?)

• What professional qualities are important for team members?
• How can these be reviewed?
• How can they be developed/improved?

• From a Chichester developer point-of-view, I think we do a fairly good job of achieving our goal (being HSBSP)
• From a personal point-of-view, I think that a better understanding of the customer's needs is important (and who are the customers)?
• From a general point-of-view, feedback from customers and colleagues would help us to evaluate both how well we are achieving our goal, and what changes we should be making.

Need to be able to review our own performance – but without falling back on overly bureaucratic or formal systems (i.e. HR processes).

Could we use 360 degree feedback within the team to review performance?

Or becoming 'reflective practitioners' (as taught in teacher training)…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice

Reflective practice is “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning”, which, according to the originator of the term, is “one of the defining characteristics of professional practice”.

Reflective Practice can help an individual to develop personally, and is useful for professions other than those discussed above. It allows professionals to continually update their skills and knowledge and consider ways to interact with their colleagues.

Suggested ways for professionals to practice reflective management include: Keeping a journal; Seeking feedback; View experiences objectively; and Taking time at the end of each day, meeting, experience etc. to reflect-on-actions.

Also (http://www.sharpy.dircon.co.uk/index_files/ReflectivePractitionerDefinition.htm):

A ‘reflective practitioner’ is someone who, at regular intervals, looks back at the work they do, and the work process, and considers how they can improve. They ‘reflect’ on the work they have done.

They are not happy to carry on at the current standard, they want to improve, they do not believe in the saying, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.

Certified Software Development Professional: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Software_Development_Professional

Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) is an ISO-accredited professional certification in software engineering offered by the IEEE Computer Society to mid-career software development practitioners. To become a Certified Software Development Professional candidates must have four years of qualified, professional software development experience, pass a four-hour, 180-question examination on software engineering principles and practice, and possess at least a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution…

Determination of Eligibility - Candidates must undergo a peer review of their education and professional qualifications…